The ordinance, which was approved Oct. 21 and went into effect Nov. 21, prohibits the distribution of single-use disposable bags at 13 grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores in Mill Valley, and requires those stores to charge a five-cent fee per paper bag it distributes to customers.

Here’s a list of the stores:

Whole Foods (Miller Ave.)

Whole Foods (East Blithedale Ave.)

Safeway (Camino Alto)

Mill Valley Market

CVS

Rite Aid

7-Eleven (Miller Ave.)

Jolly King

Grand Gasoline (Ashford Ave)

Miller Avenue Chevron (448 Miller Ave.)

Arco (Redwood Hwy. Frontage Rd.)

Xtra Oil Co. (340 Miller Ave.)

Although several grocery stores have already implemented the law, the ordinance called for a 60-day grace period for stores to get in compliance. But rather than starting enforcement Dec. 21, city officials decided to allow the grace period to continue through the holiday season, particularly to allow stores more time to update their cash registers and point of sale software to establish the five-cent fee. The ordinance allows each store to spend the money collected in fees “for any lawful purpose.”City officials said that encouraging the use of reusable bags is one example of the programs being implemented to work toward the city's "Zero Waste" goal whereby no materials are landfilled, but instead fully recycled, repaired or reused by the year 2025.The city’s plastic bag ban ordinance largely mirrors that of the County of Marin, which was approved by the Marin County Board of Supervisors in January 2011. Cities eager to follow the county’s lead in 2011 were stymied by a lawsuit filed by Save the Plastic Bag Coalition arguing that the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by passing the ban without completing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) first. Several cities, including Mill Valley, put their proposed plastic bag bans on hold until the lawsuit was resolved.A Marin Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the county in 2012, and the coalition appealed the case. In June 2013, the California First District Court of Appeals upheld the Superior Court decision, paving the way for other communities to take on the issue without the threat of a lawsuit.The plastic bag ban does not apply to product bags (e.g., bags for meats or produce) or bags provided to a customer for prescription medication. Customers may use any type of bag that they bring to the store themselves, according to the law.The Mill Valley City Council agreed to revisit the law within six months, with a particular eye on raising the five-cent fee for paper bags.“Five cents in an affluent town like ours doesn’t do squat for behavior change,” then Vice-mayor Shawn Marshall said in August.The 411: Download the City Council staff report and the final adopted ordinance. Email Senior Planner Danielle Staude with questions at dstaude@cityofmillvalley.org.

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Local music fans and patrons of the old Sweetwater have a pair of chances to take a holiday-oriented trip in the wayback machine this weekend.The Christmas Jug Band, the "irreverent crew of stalwart purveyors of the jugabilly mystique" that started as the Monday Night Wild Turkey Jug Band in Mill Valley in the mid-1970s at venues like the Old Mill Tavern and the old Sweetwater, is playing shows at the Sweetwater Music Hall on Friday and Saturday.The band, whose ever-evolving lineup over the years has included local legends like Dan Hicks and Austin DeLone, is a "seasonal assemblage of misfits of Commander Cody alumni and others from notable Bay Area musical aggregations such as Those Darn Accordions, The Moonlighters, Jesse Colin Young, and Elvis Costello.""What started as Wild Turkey-inspired momentary lapse of sanity is now five albums (over 25,000 sold) and 35 years of fruitcakes later, an unconventional tradition of highly skewed merriment," according to the group's website.The 411: The Christmas Jug Band performs Friday, Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. Friday tix are $24 and $15 for anyone under 12 or over 65. Saturday tix are $24. Click here for more info or to buy tickets.

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The future home of Sprouts Farmers Market at 209 Flamingo Ave. in Tam Valley. Courtesy photo.

Nearly three years after Tam Valley residents lost their grocery store, the owners of the 23,000-square-foot space in Tam Junction have inked a deal with Sprouts Farmer Market, a fast-growing, “independent natural foods grocery store chain” based in Arizona.

Citing lease contingencies, a Sprouts spokesperson declined to comment on the details, saying only, “We are thrilled to come to Mill Valley.” The company has yet to identify an opening date in 2014, she said.The move is likely a welcome relief for Tam Valley residents, who have been without a local grocery store since December 2010, when location Delano’s IGA Market closed its store at 209 Flamingo Road, one of five DeLano's markets in Marin and San Francisco that shut down at that time.Two years later, as San Jose-based retail chain Orchard Supply Hardware prepared to open a store in the space, a pair of petitions from Tam Valley resident Mark Marinozzi successfully sought to dissuade OSH from doing so and they pulled the plug on their plans. One of those petitions invoked the community’s need for a grocery store in the 23,000-square-foot space at 209 Flamingo Road, while the other urged one prospective grocery tenant to move into Tam Valley. OSH filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June.At that time, Robert Knez, CEO of HL Commercial Real Estate in San Rafael and the agent for the building's owners, the Parrish Trust, noted that while the building had been vacant for two years, Kroger Co., which owns the Cala Foods/Bell Market chain, had subleased the Tam Valley space to DeLano Retail Partners. That firm’s lease on the space did not run out until April 2012, so the Parrish Trust was getting revenue from the vacant building for 16 months after DeLano's closed.Stay tuned for more info on Sprouts’ plans to open a grocery store in Tam Junction.

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